PRKFACE. 



XIII 



work, involving stamina alone, the pure bred Arab may still be perfect. As a racer 

 he is not so successful, because his stride is not long enough for high speed. 



If speech were not denied them we should no doubt be able to elicit some very 

 interesting opinions on the subject of modern Racing from our four-legged friends. 

 At least, we can hardly doubt thru if Elis, on his way to Doncaster in a van (at the 

 unheard pace of 95 miles in 1 1 hours 35 minutes), had realised the terrible deve- 

 lopments of travelling in his descendants' history, he would scarcely have ensim-d 

 the success of that experiment, even in order to win the Leger with the odds of 



Mr. Wilfrid lilunt's "Mesaouii. 1 



12 to I against him. The thoroughbred of to-day is not given his choice 

 between the perpetual railway journeys he now has to undergo and the penalty of 

 walking from his stables to the course, or he would probably be willing to forego a 

 good deal of racing in order to escape even a little of the vibration and the sudden 

 changes of climate necessitated by the conditions of the Turf at the beginning of the 

 Twentieth Century. 



\Ve talk a good deal of the advance that has been made since the supposed 

 brutality of our forefathers in the consideration given to the feelings of dumb 



